Jonathan Toews hat trick

Chris Hine
Chicago Tribune

When Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville says one of his lines is "dangerous," he usually is referring to the second unit of Artemi Panarin, Patrick Kane and Artem Anisimov.

It had been a while since Quenneville broke that word out for captain Jonathan Toews' line.

But Quenneville dusted it off Tuesday morning when talking about the pulsating combination Toews has formed the last few weeks with Nick Schmaltz and Richard Panik.

"That line has been very dangerous — all three of them," Quenneville said. "Their games have been good."

Turns out, that was quite an understatement. Their chemistry was flat out combustible Tuesday night in a thrilling 5-3 victory over the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

Toews notched his fourth career hat trick and his second career five-point game as Panik and Schmaltz each added a goal. In the process, the line helped pull the Hawks to within five points of the Central Division-leading Wild and kept making the case to general manager Stan Bowman that a major trade for a top-line winger may not be necessary as the March 1 trade deadline approaches.

Schmaltz added two assists, including a flashy behind the back pass to set up Toews' second goal in the third period, while Panik notched an assist to go with his 16th goal.

"Sometimes you just have nights like that," Toews said. "Either way it's a lot of fun to play with 'Schmaltzy' and 'Panner' right now the way they're working, the way they're holding onto the puck. It's nice for us to get some results. It definitely changes the way you see yourself and your confidence."

It was just two weeks ago, before the Hawks beat the Wild on Feb. 8, that Toews was making a plea to keep the same linemates beyond a few games. Before February, the season had been a rough one for Toews, who wasn't posting his normal scoring numbers. Tuesday showed what a Toews line could do if given time to jell. Toews now has six goals and seven assists in his last seven games.

Perhaps no play was a better example of that cohesion than the fourth goal the Hawks scored in the third period.

Schmaltz was skating behind the net with the puck when he dropped a behind-the-back pass without really knowing where Toews was. He just trusted Toews would be there.

Toews was, and he "shoveled" the puck, past Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk for a 4-2 lead 8 minutes, 23 seconds into the period.

"I just kind of threw it to an area …" Schmaltz said. "I don't know how he got it in but it was a good finish by him."

Added Toews: "I was getting ready for him to go around the net to try to get my forehand on it and all of a sudden the puck was just sitting there. He fooled everybody. … It was kind of representative of how we're feeling as a line right now."

There were other inspired plays like throughout the night such as Toews setting up Panik for a goal with a pass from behind the net in the second, Schmaltz taking a Toews faceoff victory and whirring the puck past a clueless Dubnyk in the third and Toews fighting for position to put home a rebound for the first goal of the night.

"Things are going our way now," Panik said. "I think we found the right chemistry and we know where we should be on the ice."